The Indian race never stood for wealth. Although they acquired immense wealth. Perhaps more than any other nation ever acquired, yet the nation did not stand for wealth. It was a powerful race for ages, yet we find that nation never stood for power, never went out of the country to conquer. Quite content within their own boundaries, never fought anybody. The Indian nation never stood for imperial glory. Wealth and power, then, were not the ideals of the race. What then? That nation, among all the children of men has believed and believed intensely, that this life is not real. The real is God; and they must cling on to God through thick and thin.

The Indian nation never will be a powerful, conquering people – never. They will never be a great political power; that is not their business, that is not the note India has to play in the great harmony of nations. But what has she to play? God, and God alone.